WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.259 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take the sources 00:00:02.259 --> 00:00:04.440 you've shared and really drill down to give you 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:06.879 that core knowledge, a shortcut to being truly 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.679 well -informed. And today, we are tackling an 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:12.199 absolutely massive figure. We really are. We're 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:14.939 doing a deep dive into someone whose life was 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:19.620 just this constant tug of war, a battle between 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:22.739 high art and street violence, between revolution 00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:25.280 and celebrity. We're talking about Tupac Amaru 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:27.969 Shakur. the sources you've pulled together. I 00:00:27.969 --> 00:00:29.850 mean, they paint such an intricate portrait. 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:32.450 It's impossible to talk about Tupac without hitting 00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:35.149 that central paradox he lived. Right. Here's 00:00:35.149 --> 00:00:37.429 a man who is, you know, widely seen as one of 00:00:37.429 --> 00:00:39.689 the most influential rappers of all time, a key 00:00:39.689 --> 00:00:42.049 voice for black America's political struggles. 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:44.250 And at the very same time, he's the face of gangster 00:00:44.250 --> 00:00:47.750 rap. Exactly. synonymous with legal trouble with 00:00:47.750 --> 00:00:50.630 lyrics just saturated in rage and violence. It's 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:52.590 a fundamental contradiction. And that's exactly 00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:54.649 what we're here to unpack. Our mission today 00:00:54.649 --> 00:00:58.140 is to trace his life. Using these sources, we're 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:00.259 going to go from his revolutionary family and 00:01:00.259 --> 00:01:02.159 his formal arts training. All the way through 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:05.379 his explosive commercial success, his legal battles. 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:09.340 To his tragic death and then this enduring global 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:12.780 legacy that honestly still resonates so powerfully 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.040 today. It's a journey from the Black Panther 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.319 Party in Harlem to, you know, the bright lights 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.040 of Las Vegas Boulevard. And that journey, it 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:23.859 translated directly into just astonishing commercial 00:01:23.859 --> 00:01:26.519 power. Before we get into the poetry and the 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.140 politics, we have to set the scale here. Yeah, 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:31.400 the numbers are staggering. The sources confirm 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:35.680 he sold over 75 million records worldwide. I 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.459 mean, that puts him in the top tier of best -selling 00:01:38.459 --> 00:01:41.049 musical artists of all time, period. And that 00:01:41.049 --> 00:01:43.390 success isn't just about the sheer volume. It's 00:01:43.390 --> 00:01:46.129 about the depth, the staying power. When we talk 00:01:46.129 --> 00:01:47.930 about his legacy, we're talking about multiple 00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:50.829 Diamond -certified albums. Which is so rare in 00:01:50.829 --> 00:01:53.310 hip -hop. Incredibly rare. And just so you, the 00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:55.890 listener, are clear, Diamond status means selling 00:01:55.890 --> 00:01:58.030 10 million units in the United States alone. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.939 That level of commercial penetration decades 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:03.760 later is almost unheard of. And that massive 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.900 success, it sort of forced his mainstream cultural 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.500 acceptance. It was cemented, really, in 2017. 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:11.120 When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.860 of Fame. In his very first year of eligibility. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.020 That's a huge statement. It means his work is 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:19.979 no longer just analyzed as hip hop history. It's 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:23.159 foundational American culture. OK, so let's unpack 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:26.039 this. To really understand how the revolutionary 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.560 grew into the icon, we have to start at the very 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:33.180 beginning with his family and with his name. 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.199 Absolutely. Tupac's story is rooted not in the 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.020 music industry, but right in the heart of the 00:02:38.020 --> 00:02:40.060 radical black power movement of the late 60s 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.319 and early 70s. He was actually born Lissane Parrish 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.620 Crooks in East Harlem, 1971. But his mother, 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:48.240 Afini Shakur, she changed his name very quickly. 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:50.669 And that name change, it wasn't just a name change. 00:02:50.789 --> 00:02:53.110 It was a political act, a manifesto, really. 00:02:53.349 --> 00:02:56.889 She renamed him Tupac Amaru Shakur. After Tupac 00:02:56.889 --> 00:03:00.389 Amaru II, an 18th century Inca revolutionary. 00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:03.090 Who led this indigenous revolt against Spanish 00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:06.050 colonial rule in Peru and was, you know, brutally 00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:09.129 executed for it. By giving him that name, Afeni 00:03:09.129 --> 00:03:11.169 was making sure her son carried the weight of 00:03:11.169 --> 00:03:13.110 a global history of resistance from the moment 00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:15.710 he had an identity. And the personal context 00:03:15.710 --> 00:03:19.210 around his birth is... Well, it's probably the 00:03:19.210 --> 00:03:21.650 most shocking detail in the sources. It's unbelievable. 00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:24.550 His mother, Afeni, and his biological father, 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:27.370 Billy Garland, they were both highly active members 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:30.310 of the New York Black Panther Party. Afeni in 00:03:30.310 --> 00:03:32.490 particular was an incredibly intense political 00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:35.409 figure. And to really understand that intensity, 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:38.069 you have to look at the Panther 21. Yes. She 00:03:38.069 --> 00:03:40.770 was one of them. A group of Black Panther leaders 00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:44.289 facing... What was it? Over 150 charges? Over 00:03:44.289 --> 00:03:48.169 150 charges of conspiracy to bomb police stations, 00:03:48.349 --> 00:03:50.569 department stores. I mean, this was a massive, 00:03:50.650 --> 00:03:53.289 highly politicized trial. The prosecution was 00:03:53.289 --> 00:03:55.509 basically trying to decapitate the entire Black 00:03:55.509 --> 00:03:57.610 Panther leadership in New York. And here's the 00:03:57.610 --> 00:04:00.030 crucial, the defining detail. She was acquitted. 00:04:00.210 --> 00:04:02.870 Of everything. Stunning victory against the state. 00:04:02.949 --> 00:04:04.949 And this happened just one month before Tupac 00:04:04.949 --> 00:04:07.150 was born. Just think about that. You enter the 00:04:07.150 --> 00:04:09.250 world and your mother has just fought and won 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:11.310 a legal war against the U .S. government on that 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:14.080 scale. This environment of activism, of resistance, 00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:17.519 of direct confrontation. It wasn't a phase for 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.800 him. It was literally his DNA. And the family 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:23.079 tree just gets more radical from there. It extends 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:25.740 into the Black Liberation Army. Right. His stepfather, 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:28.439 Mutlu Shakur, he was convicted for his part in 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:31.180 that 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery. A crime 00:04:31.180 --> 00:04:33.759 that left two police officers and a guard dead. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.939 And he was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for 00:04:36.939 --> 00:04:38.879 four years before they caught him. And then you 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:42.199 have his godmother and step -aunt, Assata Shakur. 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.220 Her story just underscores the sheer intensity 00:04:45.220 --> 00:04:47.639 of this world. Convected of the murder of a New 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.699 Jersey state trooper, escaped from prison in 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:52.680 79. And remained on the FBI's most wanted terrorist 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:55.180 list, classified as a terrorist right up until 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:57.819 the date the source gives as her death in 2025. 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.540 You have to understand this wasn't just political 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.319 disagreement. This was a family defined by revolution, 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:06.279 by incarceration, by armed conflict with the 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:08.319 state. What's so fascinating, though, is how 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.680 this revolutionary fire gets channeled through 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:13.910 this. This really unexpected and elite artistic 00:05:13.910 --> 00:05:16.589 education. Yes. In the mid -80s, even with his 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:18.370 mother's struggles with addiction and, you know, 00:05:18.389 --> 00:05:20.610 finding work, the family moves to Baltimore. 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:23.709 And Tupac enrolls in the Baltimore School for 00:05:23.709 --> 00:05:27.629 the Arts. And this is that critical aha moment. 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:30.329 The part of the story that often gets lost in 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:32.050 the, you know, the later gangster narrative. 00:05:32.329 --> 00:05:37.509 He studied acting, poetry, jazz, even ballet. 00:05:37.769 --> 00:05:40.220 Ballet. It's not the background you expect, is 00:05:40.220 --> 00:05:42.399 it? He completely immersed himself in classical 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:44.759 arts. And his poetry was already getting noticed, 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:47.980 but the sources show a deeper intellectual thing 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:50.000 happening. He was performing in Shakespeare plays. 00:05:50.180 --> 00:05:52.540 And he said later that he saw the same patterns. 00:05:53.060 --> 00:05:55.759 The power struggles, the betrayal, the tragedy. 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:59.040 He saw all that in the street warfare around 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.319 him that he was reading in Hamlet or Macbeth. 00:06:01.610 --> 00:06:03.930 The art school literally gave him the language 00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:06.589 and the structure for tragedy. And he would later 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:08.810 apply that directly to his lyrics. This period 00:06:08.810 --> 00:06:11.149 also shows his political side wasn't just inherited. 00:06:11.350 --> 00:06:13.790 He was actively engaged. He was. He connected 00:06:13.790 --> 00:06:16.329 with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA. 00:06:16.569 --> 00:06:18.990 He even dated the daughter of the local Communist 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:21.209 Party director. So you see this articulate young 00:06:21.209 --> 00:06:23.370 man who can just move seamlessly between classical 00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:26.310 theater and high level political ideology. He's 00:06:26.310 --> 00:06:29.399 comfortable in both worlds. And crucially. It 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:31.779 was at the School for the Arts that he formed 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:34.959 this profound lifelong bond with Jada Pinkett. 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:37.139 A friendship that really seems to have been an 00:06:37.139 --> 00:06:39.220 anchor for him through everything that came later. 00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:42.259 Absolutely. He wrote poems for her. The sources 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:44.699 mentioned Jada and the tears in Cupid's eyes. 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:47.240 And she tried to help him through his worst legal 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:50.519 crises. She even apparently turned down his marriage 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:53.259 proposal when he was incarcerated at Rikers Island. 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:56.379 That relationship, that deep non -romantic intimacy 00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:59.160 and artistic connection. It's such an important 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.920 counterbalance to the hard persona he built later 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.300 on. It speaks directly to the poet that was always 00:07:04.300 --> 00:07:06.240 underneath the revolutionary. It just proves 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:08.500 the complexity was there from a very, very young 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:10.839 age. So we have the foundation, right? Born into 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:12.959 political fire, trained in the discipline of 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.279 high art. The revolutionary poet needed a stage. 00:07:15.930 --> 00:07:18.170 How did he go from playing the Mouse King in 00:07:18.170 --> 00:07:21.350 the Nutcracker to becoming the global megastar 00:07:21.350 --> 00:07:23.930 Tupac? Well, his start in the professional music 00:07:23.930 --> 00:07:26.149 world was actually pretty humble, but his drive 00:07:26.149 --> 00:07:28.689 just made everything happen so fast. He started 00:07:28.689 --> 00:07:32.089 recording around 1988 as MC New York. But the 00:07:32.089 --> 00:07:34.509 real break came when he linked up with the manager, 00:07:34.709 --> 00:07:37.970 Atron Gregory. Right, and that led him to the 00:07:37.970 --> 00:07:40.670 Oakland -based group Digital Underground in 1990. 00:07:40.790 --> 00:07:43.470 And his role was, well, he was basically a hype 00:07:43.470 --> 00:07:46.110 man. A roadie and a backup dancer. He officially 00:07:46.110 --> 00:07:49.670 debuted as Tupac on their 1991 single, Same Song. 00:07:49.870 --> 00:07:51.410 If you go back and watch that video, he's just 00:07:51.410 --> 00:07:53.970 kind of in the background. But even then, people 00:07:53.970 --> 00:07:56.170 around him knew something was different. His 00:07:56.170 --> 00:07:58.310 early producer, Jimmy Chopmaster, Jay Wright, 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:00.889 he said Shakur just didn't work as part of a 00:08:00.889 --> 00:08:03.689 group. He said, and this is a quote, this guy 00:08:03.689 --> 00:08:07.170 was on a mission from day one. Wow. Maybe he 00:08:07.170 --> 00:08:08.670 knew he wasn't going to be around seven years 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:10.930 later. That's a chilling observation. It is. 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:13.449 And that relentless focus just immediately pushed 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:16.139 him towards a solo career. which manifested in 00:08:16.139 --> 00:08:18.860 his debut solo album, Tupacalypse Now, in late 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:22.019 91. And that title alone, a direct reference 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:25.100 to Apocalypse Now, it just set the stage for 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.759 this brutal, unfiltered look at America. The 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.180 album was pure political commentary. It drew 00:08:30.180 --> 00:08:32.539 right from his family's lineage, from his experiences, 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:35.039 the songs attacking racism, police brutality, 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:39.200 poverty, gang violence, all of it. It immediately 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:42.129 made him this central... unapologetic voice of 00:08:42.129 --> 00:08:44.789 dissent in West Coast hip hop. He was rejecting 00:08:44.789 --> 00:08:47.549 the more, you know, party focused stuff that 00:08:47.549 --> 00:08:49.649 was popular at the time. And the backlash that 00:08:49.649 --> 00:08:51.830 followed wasn't just some industry chatter. It 00:08:51.830 --> 00:08:53.389 went all the way to the top of the government. 00:08:53.649 --> 00:08:57.309 A murder case in Texas. The defense claimed the 00:08:57.309 --> 00:08:59.889 themes on the album influenced the perpetrator. 00:09:00.669 --> 00:09:03.350 And that's when then Vice President Dan Quayle 00:09:03.350 --> 00:09:06.070 stepped in. Quayle publicly condemned the album. 00:09:06.230 --> 00:09:14.279 He said specifically. Which, of course, was the 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:15.820 best thing that could have possibly happened 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:18.600 for Tupac's career. Absolutely. It didn't silence 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:21.019 him. It gave him instant credibility as an anti 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:23.019 -establishment icon. He became the lightning 00:09:23.019 --> 00:09:25.419 rod for all the media anxiety about the people 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:27.440 he was rapping for. And despite that political 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:30.480 firestorm, or maybe because of it, the album's 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:32.720 impact on other artists was just seismic. The 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.669 sources say rappers like Nas, Eminem... Talib 00:09:35.669 --> 00:09:38.889 Kweli. They all cite Tupacalypse now as a formative 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:41.649 inspiration. And that track, Brenda's Got a Baby, 00:09:41.809 --> 00:09:44.990 that somber, poetic story about a teenage girl's 00:09:44.990 --> 00:09:47.730 struggles, it showed he could mix that political 00:09:47.730 --> 00:09:51.370 critique with a real, genuine empathy. His commercial 00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:54.330 profile then just explodes with the second album, 00:09:54.450 --> 00:09:58.809 Strictly For My N -I -G -G -A -Z in 1993. This 00:09:58.809 --> 00:10:01.169 is where he masters the art of keeping that political 00:10:01.169 --> 00:10:04.809 edge. while also making hits. Big hits. I Get 00:10:04.809 --> 00:10:07.029 Around gave him massive mainstream visibility. 00:10:07.409 --> 00:10:10.210 It hit number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. But 00:10:10.210 --> 00:10:12.289 importantly, this is also the album with Keep 00:10:12.289 --> 00:10:14.669 Ya Head Up, that powerful women's empowerment 00:10:14.669 --> 00:10:17.070 anthem. It showed his range. He could do party 00:10:17.070 --> 00:10:19.649 tracks and deeply conscientious material on the 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:22.090 same record, a really rare balancing act. And 00:10:22.090 --> 00:10:24.830 the album went platinum by 1995. And at the exact 00:10:24.830 --> 00:10:26.950 same time all this is happening, his film career 00:10:26.950 --> 00:10:28.830 is taking off. He's a legitimate actor. He got 00:10:28.830 --> 00:10:31.529 starring roles in Juice in 92, where Roland Stone 00:10:31.529 --> 00:10:33.929 called him the film's most magnetic figure. Then 00:10:33.929 --> 00:10:36.009 Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson and Above the 00:10:36.009 --> 00:10:38.769 Rim in 94. He was on a roll. But this is also 00:10:38.769 --> 00:10:41.210 where that volatility, that rage from the lyrics 00:10:41.210 --> 00:10:44.090 starts to spill over into his real life. It wasn't 00:10:44.090 --> 00:10:46.269 just a performance. He was cast in Menace, the 00:10:46.269 --> 00:10:48.389 Second Society, but then got into a physical 00:10:48.389 --> 00:10:51.549 fight with the director, Alan Hughes. assaulted 00:10:51.549 --> 00:10:54.250 him and that one incident led to 15 days in jail 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:57.529 in 1994 and it just significantly derailed his 00:10:57.529 --> 00:11:01.169 film ambitions the studios got scared right john 00:11:01.169 --> 00:11:03.210 singleton who directed him in poetic justice 00:11:03.210 --> 00:11:05.769 had cast him in his next film higher learning 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:08.210 but the studio refused to finance the movie with 00:11:08.210 --> 00:11:10.889 tupac in it after his arrest he lost the role 00:11:10.889 --> 00:11:13.169 because his legal instability became a financial 00:11:13.169 --> 00:11:17.100 liability this pattern Brilliant creation followed 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:19.299 by self -destruction. It becomes the defining 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:22.019 story. And that pattern just hits its absolute 00:11:22.019 --> 00:11:24.580 peak when his third album, Me Against the World, 00:11:24.659 --> 00:11:27.980 is released in March 1995 while he's in prison. 00:11:28.059 --> 00:11:30.299 And this album, created at his absolute lowest 00:11:30.299 --> 00:11:33.299 point, is now widely hailed as his magnum opus, 00:11:33.299 --> 00:11:36.100 his masterpiece. It broke records. Yeah. Debuted 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:38.639 number one on the Billboard 200, set the highest 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:41.080 first week sales for a solo male rapper at the 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:43.720 time. The symbolism is just so powerful. I mean, 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.139 an artist hitting his greatest commercial success 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:49.019 while he's incarcerated. It's the ultimate narrative, 00:11:49.139 --> 00:11:51.340 right? The system tries to crush the voice of 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:53.480 the struggle, and that voice just gets louder. 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:56.500 And that time in prison, it triggered a really 00:11:56.500 --> 00:11:59.120 deep intellectual shift in him. The sources are 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:01.700 clear on this. He turned to heavy reading. He 00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:04.460 was devouring classical works like Niccolo Machiavelli's 00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:07.220 The Prince. And Sun Tzu's The Art of War. And 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:09.120 these were not casual reads. He was studying 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:12.250 them. Machiavelli is all about how a ruler, a 00:12:12.250 --> 00:12:15.990 prince, must use cunning, ruthlessness, deception 00:12:15.990 --> 00:12:19.669 just to survive in a hostile world. Sun Tzu is 00:12:19.669 --> 00:12:22.230 the ultimate guide to military strategy. This 00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:24.210 sparked a whole new interest for him in philosophy 00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:26.929 and strategic conflict. It completely transformed 00:12:26.929 --> 00:12:29.529 his perspective. And this reading led directly 00:12:29.529 --> 00:12:31.870 to the creation of his alter ego, Machiavelli. 00:12:32.350 --> 00:12:34.350 If the prince taught him that ruthlessness was 00:12:34.350 --> 00:12:37.049 necessary for power, then all the music he made 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:39.210 after his release just embodied that philosophy. 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:41.690 He started applying military strategy to his 00:12:41.690 --> 00:12:43.929 beefs. And in the middle of all this philosophical 00:12:43.929 --> 00:12:46.789 transformation, from prison, he releases Dear 00:12:46.789 --> 00:12:49.750 Mama. Which becomes the album's lead single. 00:12:50.029 --> 00:12:53.149 It tops the Hot Rap Singles chart, goes platinum, 00:12:53.389 --> 00:12:55.789 and is eventually added to the Library of Congress 00:12:55.789 --> 00:12:58.529 National Recording Registry. An incredible emotional 00:12:58.529 --> 00:13:02.190 success. It proves that even while he was literally 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:05.429 fighting the world, he still had this capacity 00:13:05.429 --> 00:13:08.759 for deep... personal reflection and love. You 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:11.059 can see the evolution so clearly in the sources 00:13:11.059 --> 00:13:13.799 from political commentator to commercial star 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:16.299 and then finally to this philosophical warrior 00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:19.519 forged in the fire of his own legal and criminal 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:23.220 battles. And those battles from 1993 on, they 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.039 just start to dominate everything. The legal 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:27.100 issues and the violent clashes, they weren't 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:29.100 distractions from his career anymore. No, they 00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:31.460 became the central engine. They drove his final 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:34.100 and most commercially successful music. Let's 00:13:34.100 --> 00:13:36.100 start with the Atlanta shooting incident in October. 00:13:36.169 --> 00:13:39.149 It just perfectly illustrates how impossible 00:13:39.149 --> 00:13:42.110 it was to separate Tupac, the person from Tupac 00:13:42.110 --> 00:13:44.529 the icon. He was arrested for allegedly shooting 00:13:44.529 --> 00:13:47.149 two off -duty police officers, Mark and Scott 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:49.509 Whitwell. The plea to count was that it started 00:13:49.509 --> 00:13:51.909 over an argument about them jaywalking, that 00:13:51.909 --> 00:13:54.419 his car almost hit them. But the sources also 00:13:54.419 --> 00:13:56.639 detail witness accounts that tell a very different 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.679 story. They claimed the officers were harassing 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:02.259 a black motorist, that they used racial slurs, 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:04.659 and that they actually fired the first shots. 00:14:04.899 --> 00:14:07.519 Forcing Tupac and his crew to defend themselves. 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:10.720 And that conflict in the evidence, it just reflects 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.480 that deep, systemic distrust Tupac was always 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:17.059 rapping about. In the end, prosecutors dropped 00:14:17.059 --> 00:14:19.340 all the charges, which tells you the evidence 00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:22.210 was just too messy to go forward. But the financial 00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:25.789 fallout was still huge. One of the officers resigned, 00:14:26.049 --> 00:14:29.490 and later, a $2 million civil default judgment 00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:32.389 was entered against Shakur's estate. Even when 00:14:32.389 --> 00:14:34.509 he was acquitted, the legal troubles were incredibly 00:14:34.509 --> 00:14:37.350 costly. And then just a month later, the situation 00:14:37.350 --> 00:14:39.330 gets even more serious with the sexual assault 00:14:39.330 --> 00:14:42.139 case in November 1993. This is the case that 00:14:42.139 --> 00:14:44.480 for a decade, probably more than any other, defined 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:47.299 his public image. He was accused of sodomizing 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:50.019 a woman, Ayanna Jackson, in his hotel room with 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:52.559 a couple of his associates. The verdict, which 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:54.919 came in February 95, was actually pretty complex. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.580 And that part often gets forgotten. It really 00:14:57.580 --> 00:14:59.919 does. He was acquitted of the most severe charges, 00:15:00.139 --> 00:15:03.240 the sodomy and the gun charges. But he was convicted 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:06.139 of two counts of first degree sexual abuse. Specifically 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:09.100 for, and I'm quoting the sources here, forcibly 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.360 touching the woman's buttocks. That distinction 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.720 is so important. The jury did not find him guilty 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.240 of the main accusation, but they did find he'd 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:19.799 engaged in non -consensual physical contact. 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:24.200 And the judge sentenced him. 18 months to four 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:27.139 and a half years. And the bond for his appeal 00:15:27.139 --> 00:15:30.700 was set at an almost impossible $3 million. That 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:32.659 bond was basically a political statement. It 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:34.500 made sure he was going to prison. He couldn't 00:15:34.500 --> 00:15:36.700 post it. He had to surrender to authorities while 00:15:36.700 --> 00:15:38.539 he was still recovering from injuries he got 00:15:38.539 --> 00:15:41.419 just days before in the incident that changed 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:44.519 everything. The Quad Studios ambush. And Tupac's 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:47.000 immediate unwavering belief was that the whole 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.419 sexual assault case was a setup? Right. He was 00:15:49.419 --> 00:15:51.480 convinced it was orchestrated by associates he 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:53.720 was already feuding with, specifically Jacques 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:56.639 Haitian Jack Agnet and James Henchman Roseman. 00:15:56.980 --> 00:15:59.620 He saw the legal attack and the physical attack 00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:02.080 as part of the same campaign against him. Which 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:05.940 brings us to November 30th, 1994. The event that 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:09.059 didn't just fuel a rivalry. It ignited a war. 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:11.620 He was lured to the quad recording studios in 00:16:11.620 --> 00:16:13.679 Times Square. They told him he was needed for 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.740 a $7 ,000 recording session. He needed the cash 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:19.379 for his legal fees. And in the lobby, three men 00:16:19.379 --> 00:16:21.779 ambush him. They rob him of his jewelry, which 00:16:21.779 --> 00:16:24.600 was worth about $40 ,000, and then beat him at 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:26.639 gunpoint. He resisted, and that's when he was 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:29.409 shot five times. In the head, the groin, the 00:16:29.409 --> 00:16:31.529 hand. His response to nearly being killed was 00:16:31.529 --> 00:16:34.110 just pure defiance. Against his doctor's advice, 00:16:34.269 --> 00:16:36.110 he checked himself out of the hospital just hours 00:16:36.110 --> 00:16:38.169 after surgery. And showed up at the Manhattan 00:16:38.169 --> 00:16:41.070 courthouse the very next day for his sexual abuse 00:16:41.070 --> 00:16:44.470 verdict. In a wheelchair, with his head wrapped 00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:47.940 in bandages. It was pure theater. a public performance 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:50.840 of invincibility. He was telling the world, you 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.159 shot me, but you didn't kill me and I'm still 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:55.720 here to face your charges. It just solidified 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:58.440 his image as this warrior who refused to fall. 00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:01.519 While he was serving his time, he was recuperating 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.359 at the home of the actress Jasmine Guy, and the 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:06.519 sources say his security detail was fascinating. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:09.720 It was. He was being guarded by members of the 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:11.960 Fruit of Islam and former Black Panther members. 00:17:12.180 --> 00:17:14.819 Even at his most vulnerable, he was protected 00:17:14.819 --> 00:17:17.200 by that revolutionary network he was born into. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.200 Okay, so this brings us to the feud. The famous 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:23.700 East Coast -West Coast rivalry. It had been simmering 00:17:23.700 --> 00:17:26.440 for a while, the tension between death row records 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:29.759 on the West Coast, run by Suge Knight, and bad 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:32.420 boy records on the East Coast, run by Sean Combs, 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:35.740 Puff Daddy, and featuring the notorious B .I 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:38.500 .G. But the quad shooting was the catalyst. It 00:17:38.500 --> 00:17:40.460 was the point of no return. And when he got out 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:43.119 of prison in October 95, which only happened 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.319 because Suge Knight posted that massive $1 .4 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:49.700 million bond two -pack, immediately signed with 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:52.259 Death Row. Which basically made the feud corporate, 00:17:52.460 --> 00:17:55.220 geographical. He was completely convinced, and 00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:57.579 he said it publicly, that Combs, B .I .G., and 00:17:57.579 --> 00:17:59.960 Henchmen had either set up the ambush or, at 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:01.640 the very least, they knew about it. And then 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:04.460 B .I .G.'s track, Who Shot Ya?, comes out a few 00:18:04.460 --> 00:18:06.539 months after the shooting. And even though B 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:08.920 .I .G. and Combs always maintained the song was 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:10.920 recorded before the incident and wasn't about 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:14.599 Tupac, he took it as a direct, insulting mockery 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.319 of his near -death experience. It was the ultimate 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.000 provocation. And Shakur's response was, well, 00:18:20.119 --> 00:18:22.559 it was not subtle. He dropped the diss track. 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:25.089 Hit him up. And that wasn't just a lyrical job. 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:27.609 It was a military -grade declaration of war. 00:18:27.750 --> 00:18:30.849 He completely shattered the normal rules of rat 00:18:30.849 --> 00:18:33.130 beef. In Hit Em Up, he doesn't just threaten 00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:34.910 B .I .G. and Combs. He calls himself the bad 00:18:34.910 --> 00:18:37.789 boy killer. He threatens violent payback against 00:18:37.789 --> 00:18:40.509 their entire empire, their associates, everyone. 00:18:40.950 --> 00:18:44.470 It was... intensely personal, explicit, and violent. 00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:47.130 It escalated the rivalry from a lyrical contest 00:18:47.130 --> 00:18:50.009 into a genuine, highly dangerous conflict that 00:18:50.009 --> 00:18:52.109 just consumed the music world. And we should 00:18:52.109 --> 00:18:54.789 note his theory about being set up. For years, 00:18:54.789 --> 00:18:57.789 people debated it. But in 2011, a convicted murderer 00:18:57.789 --> 00:19:00.859 named Dexter Isaac issued this detailed confession. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:03.299 He did. He said he was one of the gunmen hired 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.099 by James Henchman Roseman to rob and shoot Shakur 00:19:06.099 --> 00:19:08.460 at the studio. That confession, years later, 00:19:08.619 --> 00:19:10.799 basically provided a posthumous vindication for 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.000 what Tupac had believed all along. And beyond 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.960 these huge career -defining conflicts, he was 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:18.039 just constantly dealing with other legal friction. 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:22.059 The sources detail a 1991 lawsuit he filed against 00:19:22.059 --> 00:19:24.029 the Oakland Police Department. That was from 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.650 a police stop for jaywalking where he was choked 00:19:26.650 --> 00:19:28.789 and had his head slammed on the pavement. He 00:19:28.789 --> 00:19:31.869 filed a $10 million police brutality lawsuit. 00:19:32.150 --> 00:19:34.069 Which was settled out of court for around $43 00:19:34.069 --> 00:19:37.210 ,000. But interestingly, the source also notes 00:19:37.210 --> 00:19:39.450 that this specific incident is what triggered 00:19:39.450 --> 00:19:42.450 his autoimmune disease, alopecia, which is why 00:19:42.450 --> 00:19:44.509 he started shaving his head. And then there was 00:19:44.509 --> 00:19:47.049 also that tragic, wrongful death suit in 1995. 00:19:48.009 --> 00:19:50.490 After one of his concerts, a six -year -old boy, 00:19:50.650 --> 00:19:53.470 Quiet Walker Teal, was fatally shot by a bullet 00:19:53.470 --> 00:19:56.130 from a gun registered to Tupac. While Tupac claimed 00:19:56.130 --> 00:19:57.950 the gun was dropped and went off by accident, 00:19:58.170 --> 00:20:00.089 the family's civil suit was settled for between 00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:03.549 $300 ,000 and $500 ,000. The sheer volume and 00:20:03.549 --> 00:20:06.390 severity of all these legal incidents—police 00:20:06.390 --> 00:20:08.829 brutality, attempted murder, sexual assault, 00:20:08.950 --> 00:20:11.509 wrongful death— It just reveals a life that was 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:13.769 constantly lived at the intersection of fame, 00:20:13.930 --> 00:20:17.210 volatility, and real danger. His last two years 00:20:17.210 --> 00:20:19.650 after getting out of prison were just characterized 00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:23.329 by this incredible, almost manic level of productivity. 00:20:23.470 --> 00:20:26.410 He was fueled by his contract with Death Row, 00:20:26.589 --> 00:20:29.410 driven by that Machiavelli philosophy he developed 00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:32.930 in prison. His output was just relentless. And 00:20:32.930 --> 00:20:35.329 the ultimate expression of that is the Don Columinati, 00:20:35.430 --> 00:20:38.309 the seven -day theory, which came out posthumously 00:20:38.309 --> 00:20:40.980 under the name Machiavelli. The creation timeline 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:43.680 for that album is just mind -blowing. The sources 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:46.240 say the lyrics were written and recorded in only 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.279 three days. The mixing took just four. That's 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.880 the seven -day theory. Exactly. And it's a work 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:54.240 that really showcases that philosophical sift. 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.019 It combines his prison readings with this intense, 00:20:57.039 --> 00:20:59.920 raw, personal hurt, rage, and vendetta against 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:02.559 his enemies. The emotional power of it comes 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.640 from the fact that it was created under such 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.079 immense pressure. But before that final, raw, 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:09.599 artistic statement, He hit his absolute commercial 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.779 peak with All Eyes on Me, released in early 96. 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:15.299 This was the first ever hip -hop double album, 00:21:15.500 --> 00:21:17.640 which was a clever way for him to satisfy two 00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:19.319 of his album requirements under the death row 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:22.039 contract. And this album is a definite shift 00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:26.059 in theme. His debut was All Politics. All Eyes 00:21:26.059 --> 00:21:28.619 on Me mostly moves away from that. It's about 00:21:28.619 --> 00:21:32.039 celebrating this triumphant, opulent, and often 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:35.009 violent gangsta lifestyle. Think of tracks like 00:21:35.009 --> 00:21:37.990 Ambitions as a Rita and California Love and The 00:21:37.990 --> 00:21:40.490 Public Responded. The album was certified 10 00:21:40.490 --> 00:21:42.910 times multi -platinum diamond status by 2014. 00:21:43.309 --> 00:21:45.950 It just solidified his massive commercial reach. 00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:48.630 But to only talk about the sales figures is to 00:21:48.630 --> 00:21:52.089 miss the real genius of his artistry. His technique, 00:21:52.309 --> 00:21:54.369 which he honed at the Baltimore School for the 00:21:54.369 --> 00:21:56.690 Arts, that's what made him unique. His early 00:21:56.690 --> 00:21:59.730 producer, Greg Shotji Jacobs, had that incredible 00:21:59.730 --> 00:22:01.930 vocal analysis. I love this quote. He laid out 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:04.049 this whole taxonomy of rap delivery. He said, 00:22:04.109 --> 00:22:06.529 Slick Rick rhymed from the nasal palate, Nas 00:22:06.529 --> 00:22:08.269 from the back of his throat, and Pac from the 00:22:08.269 --> 00:22:09.950 pit of his stomach, which is where his power 00:22:09.950 --> 00:22:12.589 came from. From the pit of his stomach. That 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:14.950 sound, it had so much weight, so much passion. 00:22:14.970 --> 00:22:17.849 It was visceral. And it's attributed to the influence 00:22:17.849 --> 00:22:20.730 of great orders he grew up idolizing, like Martin 00:22:20.730 --> 00:22:23.670 Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He approached 00:22:23.670 --> 00:22:25.730 the mic like a political speaker at a rally, 00:22:25.910 --> 00:22:28.910 using his volume and his inflection to just command 00:22:28.910 --> 00:22:31.049 your attention. And his training went beyond 00:22:31.049 --> 00:22:32.970 just delivery. He had a signature production 00:22:32.970 --> 00:22:35.950 technique of stacking or layering his vocals. 00:22:36.089 --> 00:22:38.609 You can hear it so clearly on Dear Mama. This 00:22:38.609 --> 00:22:41.170 is where you meticulously overlay multiple vocal 00:22:41.170 --> 00:22:44.130 tracks, repeating phrases, adding echoes to get 00:22:44.130 --> 00:22:46.950 a thicker, roar, more emotional sound. And we 00:22:46.950 --> 00:22:48.730 should probably pause and emphasize why that's 00:22:48.730 --> 00:22:51.710 so significant. To master vocal stacking, you 00:22:51.710 --> 00:22:54.630 need extraordinary precision and rhythm control. 00:22:54.970 --> 00:22:57.609 If the tracks are even slightly off. The whole 00:22:57.609 --> 00:22:59.950 thing just sounds muddy and messy. And the sources 00:22:59.950 --> 00:23:01.910 confirmed that this highly disciplined control 00:23:01.910 --> 00:23:04.990 of rhythm and timing, it's a skill he learned 00:23:04.990 --> 00:23:07.950 directly from his formal training in jazz, poetry, 00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:11.130 and theater. He was applying high art precision 00:23:11.130 --> 00:23:13.710 to raw street lyricism. And that's why he got 00:23:13.710 --> 00:23:17.210 such high literary praise from his peers. Nas, 00:23:17.529 --> 00:23:20.410 another lyrical giant, said, I put Tupac beyond 00:23:20.410 --> 00:23:23.289 Shakespeare. And Eminem called him the greatest 00:23:23.289 --> 00:23:26.089 songwriter of all time. He wasn't just seen as 00:23:26.089 --> 00:23:28.750 a rapper. He was seen as a master working within 00:23:28.750 --> 00:23:31.750 a lyrical tradition. But sadly, this incredible 00:23:31.750 --> 00:23:35.410 artistic output was just abruptly and violently 00:23:35.410 --> 00:23:38.690 cut short on the night of September 7th, 1996 00:23:38.690 --> 00:23:42.430 in Las Vegas. Tupac was there for the big heavyweight 00:23:42.430 --> 00:23:45.089 boxing match. Bruce Seldon versus Mike Tyson 00:23:45.089 --> 00:23:48.470 at the MGM Grand. He was with Suge Knight and 00:23:48.470 --> 00:23:51.009 their whole entourage celebrating a huge year 00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:53.390 for Death Row. And the conflict that sealed his 00:23:53.390 --> 00:23:56.009 fate happened right after the fight. In the hotel 00:23:56.009 --> 00:23:58.509 lobby, one of Suge's associates spotted Orlando 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.450 Anderson. Anderson was a Southside Compton crip 00:24:01.450 --> 00:24:03.230 who had allegedly robbed a Death Row associate 00:24:03.230 --> 00:24:05.150 earlier that year. And the surveillance footage 00:24:05.150 --> 00:24:08.009 is clear. It shows Tupac and his crew initiating 00:24:08.009 --> 00:24:10.549 an assault on Anderson, beating him badly right 00:24:10.549 --> 00:24:12.690 there in the lobby. After that very public fight, 00:24:12.910 --> 00:24:14.869 Shakur and Knight headed out on their way to 00:24:14.869 --> 00:24:17.789 a death row nightclub, Club 662. They were in 00:24:17.789 --> 00:24:20.529 Knight's Black BMW. And there was this strange 00:24:20.529 --> 00:24:23.349 little moment just before the tragedy. They were 00:24:23.349 --> 00:24:25.990 pulled over by Vegas police. For playing music 00:24:25.990 --> 00:24:29.210 too loud and having missing license plates. But 00:24:29.210 --> 00:24:32.059 they were quickly let go. And then, about 15 00:24:32.059 --> 00:24:35.380 minutes later, around 11 to 15 p .m., they're 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:38.799 stopped at a red light on Flamingo Road. A white 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:41.039 four -door Cadillac pulls up right alongside 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:43.220 them. An occupant rolls down the window and just 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:46.920 opens fire. Shakur was hit four times, in the 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:50.799 arm, the thigh, and twice in the chest. One bullet 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.210 punctured his right lung. Knight was grazed by 00:24:53.210 --> 00:24:55.569 a fragment but was able to drive the severely 00:24:55.569 --> 00:24:58.289 wounded Shakur away from the scene. Tupac was 00:24:58.289 --> 00:25:00.490 rushed to the University Medical Center. Doctors 00:25:00.490 --> 00:25:02.349 performed multiple surgeries. He was heavily 00:25:02.349 --> 00:25:04.730 sedated, placed on life support. And six days 00:25:04.730 --> 00:25:09.109 later, on September 13, 1996, Tupac Amar Shakur 00:25:09.109 --> 00:25:11.460 died from internal bleeding. He was pronounced 00:25:11.460 --> 00:25:14.299 dead at 4 .03 p .m. The immediate aftermath had 00:25:14.299 --> 00:25:17.259 this, this unique and defiant final act that 00:25:17.259 --> 00:25:19.099 the sources detail. Members of his group, the 00:25:19.099 --> 00:25:21.180 Outlaws. They followed a line from his song, 00:25:21.259 --> 00:25:23.680 Black Jesus. They mixed some of his cremated 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:25.859 ashes with marijuana and smoked them. A final 00:25:25.859 --> 00:25:28.440 tribute. And we have to bring this history right 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:30.099 up to the present day for you, the listener. 00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:33.420 The murder was unsolved for decades, which fueled 00:25:33.420 --> 00:25:36.450 endless speculation. But in September 2023, the 00:25:36.450 --> 00:25:39.410 case took a definitive turn. Police arrested 00:25:39.410 --> 00:25:42.450 Dwayne Keefe D. Davis, who the sources identify 00:25:42.450 --> 00:25:45.910 as Orlando Anderson's uncle and the alleged mastermind 00:25:45.910 --> 00:25:48.369 of the whole plot. Davis has pleaded not guilty, 00:25:48.549 --> 00:25:51.130 but he is now officially set to stand trial in 00:25:51.130 --> 00:25:54.329 February of 2026. This means the final chapter 00:25:54.329 --> 00:25:57.589 of Tupac's life, that violent ending, is finally, 00:25:57.750 --> 00:26:00.710 after almost 30 years, entering a phase of legal 00:26:00.710 --> 00:26:03.730 resolution. Even in death, Tupac's cultural footprint 00:26:03.730 --> 00:26:06.710 just expanded. Exponentially. It cemented him 00:26:06.710 --> 00:26:10.109 as a true global icon, way beyond hip -hop. Rolling 00:26:10.109 --> 00:26:12.410 Stone ranked him among the 100 greatest artists 00:26:12.410 --> 00:26:15.029 of all time. And his personal blend of characteristics, 00:26:15.289 --> 00:26:17.829 that confounding mix of, you know, ladies' man, 00:26:18.009 --> 00:26:20.509 thug, revolutionary, and poet. It completely 00:26:20.509 --> 00:26:22.549 altered the public's idea of what a rapper could 00:26:22.549 --> 00:26:25.109 be. Beds said he is the most copied MC of all 00:26:25.109 --> 00:26:28.589 time. His aesthetic is still iconic. The bandana 00:26:28.589 --> 00:26:31.690 tied in the rabbit ear style. It became the symbol 00:26:31.690 --> 00:26:34.970 of defiance. The sources note his influence is 00:26:34.970 --> 00:26:37.910 generational. 50 Cent said every rapper who came 00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:40.599 up in the 90s owes a debt to Tupac. either because 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:42.680 they copied him directly or because they had 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:45.539 to actively define themselves in opposition to 00:26:45.539 --> 00:26:47.980 him. And that revolutionary intellectual core 00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:51.220 of his identity just continues to resonate. They 00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:53.519 posthumously released his handwritten childhood 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:56.099 poems, and they deal with these incredibly mature 00:26:56.099 --> 00:26:58.779 themes of black liberation, mass incarceration. 00:26:59.140 --> 00:27:02.059 And he signed them. Tupac Shakur, future freedom 00:27:02.059 --> 00:27:04.700 fighter. The political commitment was there before 00:27:04.700 --> 00:27:07.480 he was even a teenager. And maybe the most powerful 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:09.720 symbolic gesture that connects him back to those 00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:11.880 roots was the decision about his final resting 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:14.380 place. On the 10th anniversary of his death in 00:27:14.380 --> 00:27:18.299 2006, his mother Afeni chose Soweto, South Africa 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:20.960 for the interment of some of his ashes. And that 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:23.740 decision was so deeply symbolic. Soweto is known 00:27:23.740 --> 00:27:26.220 globally as the birthplace of the South African 00:27:26.220 --> 00:27:28.859 struggle for democracy and against apartheid. 00:27:29.099 --> 00:27:31.579 By taking his remains there, Afeni explicitly 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:34.519 linked her son, the American rapper, to a global 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:37.480 history of black resistance. It elevated his 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:40.220 story way beyond the East -West rivalry. And 00:27:40.220 --> 00:27:42.279 that elevation is confirmed by how he's been 00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:46.099 recognized in academia. In 2003, Harvard University 00:27:46.099 --> 00:27:48.980 co -sponsored a symposium called All Eyes on 00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:52.000 Me, Tupac Shakur, and The Search for the Modern 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:55.009 Folk Hero. They were analyzing his impact not 00:27:55.009 --> 00:27:57.789 just on music, but on sociology, on narrative. 00:27:58.069 --> 00:28:00.210 The English scholar Mark Anthony Neal came up 00:28:00.210 --> 00:28:02.589 with what is, I think, the most insightful label 00:28:02.589 --> 00:28:05.730 for the paradox. He called Tupac a thug nigga 00:28:05.730 --> 00:28:08.829 intellectual. Neal described him as an organic 00:28:08.829 --> 00:28:11.390 intellectual, someone who had that rare gift 00:28:11.390 --> 00:28:13.309 of making intellectual discourse questions about 00:28:13.309 --> 00:28:15.970 fate, justice, power, making it all accessible 00:28:15.970 --> 00:28:18.009 to ordinary people. He spoke the language of 00:28:18.009 --> 00:28:20.099 the street. but he had the analytical mind of 00:28:20.099 --> 00:28:22.339 an activist. And his global reach was studied 00:28:22.339 --> 00:28:25.240 by the University of Oslo in 2012. They had a 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:27.380 course analyzing his influence on contemporary 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:30.519 culture. The source noted references to him popping 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:33.299 up everywhere, from Barack Obama's slogan about 00:28:33.299 --> 00:28:36.140 changes to Palestinians and Israelis longing 00:28:36.140 --> 00:28:38.759 for peace in the Middle East. His song Changes, 00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:41.079 in particular, just transcended its original 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:44.180 context. It became this universal anthem for 00:28:44.180 --> 00:28:46.680 anyone wanting societal improvement. And the 00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:49.039 formal honors keep coming. He got a star on the 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.619 Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. And Changes was 00:28:52.619 --> 00:28:54.940 even added to the Vatican's online playlist in 00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:58.720 2009. A truly unexpected endorsement. And his 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:00.660 legacy is still supporting the arts that trained 00:29:00.660 --> 00:29:02.950 him. His lifelong friend, Jada Pinkett Smith, 00:29:03.170 --> 00:29:05.569 donated a million dollars to the Baltimore School 00:29:05.569 --> 00:29:08.069 for the Arts and named the new theater in his 00:29:08.069 --> 00:29:10.470 honor. The money flows right back to the place 00:29:10.470 --> 00:29:12.390 that taught the revolutionary how to structure 00:29:12.390 --> 00:29:14.930 a tragedy. Finally, you can't ignore the raw 00:29:14.930 --> 00:29:18.269 commercial power he still has, that 2012 Coachella 00:29:18.269 --> 00:29:21.130 performance. The hologram, which wasn't technically 00:29:21.130 --> 00:29:22.910 a hologram, but that's what everyone called it. 00:29:22.990 --> 00:29:25.809 Right. Seeing him perform with Snoop Dogg and 00:29:25.809 --> 00:29:29.410 Dr. Dre, it spurred massive sales gains for his 00:29:29.410 --> 00:29:32.630 entire back catalog. It proved that decades later, 00:29:32.710 --> 00:29:35.650 the demand for his presence for his art is still 00:29:35.650 --> 00:29:38.750 immense. So what does this all mean? We've meticulously 00:29:38.750 --> 00:29:41.029 traced the life of a man born to Black Panther 00:29:41.029 --> 00:29:44.130 parents, named for an Inca revolutionary trained 00:29:44.130 --> 00:29:46.619 in ballet and Shakespeare. And that background, 00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:50.440 it gave him this unique ability to synthesize 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:53.940 political rap with street reporting. He was propelled 00:29:53.940 --> 00:29:57.299 to just astronomical fame by rage and by poetry, 00:29:57.299 --> 00:30:00.339 only to be consumed by the very gang violence 00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:03.460 he was documenting. And, you know, eventually 00:30:03.460 --> 00:30:06.200 helping to fuel. His legacy is defined by the 00:30:06.200 --> 00:30:08.640 compression of his tragically short life. The 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:10.619 legal struggles, the shootings, the prison sentence. 00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:14.700 They didn't stop his art. They fed it. The rage, 00:30:14.700 --> 00:30:17.759 the vendetta, the paranoia. It all drove that 00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:20.579 hyper productive final two years. It gave us 00:30:20.579 --> 00:30:23.119 diamond albums and the incredible intensity of 00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:25.940 Machiavelli. His unique ability to fuse the highly 00:30:25.940 --> 00:30:28.539 political, the deeply poetic and the hyper violent. 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:30.299 That's the pattern that defines his influence. 00:30:30.500 --> 00:30:32.829 We tracked him from his birth. framed by the 00:30:32.829 --> 00:30:34.930 Panther 21 trial, all the way to his mother, 00:30:35.029 --> 00:30:37.529 choosing Soweto as a final resting place, anchoring 00:30:37.529 --> 00:30:40.009 him to a global history of resistance. His life 00:30:40.009 --> 00:30:42.130 was the physical embodiment of one generation's 00:30:42.130 --> 00:30:44.009 struggle spilling into the next era of American 00:30:44.009 --> 00:30:46.230 violence. Which raises an important question 00:30:46.230 --> 00:30:48.890 for you, the listener, especially now with a 00:30:48.890 --> 00:30:51.890 definitive suspect, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis, set 00:30:51.890 --> 00:30:55.309 to stand trial in 2026 when that final legal 00:30:55.309 --> 00:30:57.549 chapter of Tupac's story is finally written. 00:30:57.769 --> 00:31:00.650 Can that outcome ever truly separate the revolutionary 00:31:00.650 --> 00:31:03.369 legacy, the poet, the intellectual, the martyr 00:31:03.369 --> 00:31:05.670 from the organized gang violence and intense 00:31:05.670 --> 00:31:07.549 personal conflicts that tragically engineered 00:31:07.549 --> 00:31:09.730 his ending? Thank you for taking this deep dive 00:31:09.730 --> 00:31:10.109 with us.